The Start
by MidnightXHour
Summary: Cody. Sierra. Sierra's obsessed with him, we all know this. What we don't know is how it started…Maybe with just a simple friendly gesture in fourth grade? *Okay, possible bad summary, but I think the story's better than the summary! Check it out !*
1. First Encounter

**-The Start-**

_**Summary: **__Cody. Sierra. Sierra's obsessed with him, we all know this. What we don't know is how it started…Maybe with just a simple friendly gesture in fourth grade? _

_**Disclaimer: **__I do not own Cody Anderson or Sierra something-or-other, or any other character from Total Drama that may show up-Not guaranteeing they will, but ya know. Total Drama and all characters belong to their respective owners, a.k.a. not me._

A prison. She wouldn't be able to escape until 3:25. So many hours away. There were so many new people around, so many strange faces. She'd be torn apart after mere seconds!

"_I love you, Sierra!"_ Lie. She clutches her backpack strap even tighter. If her mother really loved her like she always said, then why was she leaving her to suffer here? _"Okay, now get in there, honey."_ Sierra stumbles forward after a slight push from her mother. She fingers her violet ponytail nervously, twirling the end around and around, but it sure wasn't doing much to calm her. There was so much to pick at, Sierra's sure the kids won't even know where to start. Her hair, her height, the fact that she's new…

'_Why me?'_ She slowly lets out a breath of anxious air and takes her first step inside her new classroom, meeting the eyes of no one. Everyone was staring. She could feel it. Dozens of eyes locked on her. Sierra stares down at her feet as she walks, breathing slowly and quietly, trying to make sure that's she completely unnoticeable.

When you're this tall and have purple hair, you're always noticed.

"_You must be our new student, hmm?" _Sierra nods, keeping her head down. She knows that everyone's staring, but not at their friends or at a book or their work. They're all staring at her, and it makes her feel strange. As if she didn't feel out of place already._ "Well, you can sit your backpack over there, honey, and then why don't you introduce yourself?"_ Sierra wants to decline the offer and run away and never come back. Just run into her mother's arms and become home-schooled again, and never have to deal with this, never ever. But the world doesn't work in her favor, for she doesn't control it. She's only ten. How can you control the world at ten? Or ever?

She sits her highlighter-yellow backpack in the designated area and slowly comes back to the front of the room.

"_Uh, m-my name's S-S-Sierra, and I-I'm t-t-ten years o-old…." _She stops, unsure if she should say anything else. Isn't this a bit personal, anyway? Should she just be giving out all of her information? How would they like it if she somehow knew everything about them? Knowing every little ounce of personal detail?

"_Okay, Sierra. What school are you coming from?"_

"_I was h-home schooled." _Sierra stops again, hating the fact that she's stuttering. The teacher seems to get a different look in her eyes, something that was straying away from the sweet, compassionate look she had mere milliseconds ago-Almost as if she were worried for Sierra's wellbeing, but there was something else…Like she knows that Sierra's going to be a handful. Home schooled kids were always…different, from her experiences. With purple hair, she can already tell what kind of girl Sierra's going to be: Just a bit strange.

"_Well, that sounds interesting! Maybe you can tell us all about it later, okay, sweetheart? Now, you're gonna sit next to Cody, right over there. Cody, raise your hand, please?"_

Cody reluctantly raises his hand. The new girl seemed…weird, to say the least. He's never seen anyone with hair that color. He's seen his mother put a pink stripe in her hair, but it was still brown, and she made it herself.

This girl's hair was _completely violet._

He notices that the girl doesn't really want to come over. She's dragging her feet, going slow, looking down. He feels a little bad for her. He's been in the same city for his entire life, and he's never had to experience being "the new kid". He knows everyone, and she knows no one. Maybe he could try and be her friend? But then the kids would make fun of him-No one ever befriends the new kid.

But he could try. Just a little. An unnoticeable effort. In fourth grade, you have to survive: Fourth graders were harsh.

Sierra sits cautiously at the desk beside him, staring at the wood, as if she's trying to study the swirls and words forever embedded in the surface and fingering with the green-banded locket around her neck. Cody stares straight ahead, until curiosity finally gets the best of him. His bright teal eyes slowly turn on the new girl, who shifts. His mother told him it was rude to stare, so he turns back. But not for long.

"_Hi."_ Sierra keeps staring down. Maybe she's unaware that he was talking to her? Or maybe he was too quiet? He swallows any nervousness that was beginning to form in his mind to keep him from thinking, the nervousness in his throat to would block him from speaking. He leans over and taps her.

She jumps, clearly startled. The small spark he felt when his finger made contact with her arm was strange. He decides to ignore it, as it probably wasn't important. His brother told him something about…No. It wasn't important.

"_Uh, hi."_

"_Hi."_ Her voice is quiet, but he can tell that if she spoke up, it could be pretty. But he's never said any voice was pretty. Not even that singer his mom kept playing in the house. Good, but not pretty, like hers. But since when does he ever say stuff like this? It sounds like something out of one of those books his mom and his sister read. Weird. He'd have to stop looking through those.

He was talking to her…How should she respond? Maybe she should stay quiet. But maybe she should keep talking. He looks nice.

Small. Cute, small…Bright blue eyes, very pretty color. A cute smile, and it makes her smile. She doesn't even notice that she's smiling until he says,

"_Hey, you're smiling now."_ But he's not laughing at her. He's smiling too. His hair is very entrancing, different from what she's seen before-soft and slightly messy and a nice shade of brown. _"I'm Cody Anderson."_

"_Sierra Haylei." _She said it without hesitation, which she found strange, just slightly. There was something about Cody that made her feel different. Maybe it was the cute little gap between his teeth? She's not positive, but it was something. He was taking away the anxiety in the pit of her stomach, taking away the lingering pessimism in her young mind. Look at this, she's only just met the boy and he's already had such a big affect on her…A loud bell sends jitters back into her system, the sudden sound causing her to jump, her eyes wide from surprise.

"_I guess there aren't bells at home, huh? It's lunch time," _Cody says, smiling still. The rest of the class has rushed out already, ready to eat and talk and get rid of the horrors that multiplication and sentence structures has produced. Sierra takes Cody's outstretched hand and realizes how much taller she is compared to him once she stands. Her smile wavers a little, but she stays strong-He doesn't seem to mind, so why should she? Cody seems nice. That could be the start of something.

Maybe when her mom teaches her to make a website, she can make one for Cody.

**A/N:**_ So, that's the start. Hope you guys liked it! I know, Sierra and Cody are completely OOC, but I'm going to try to get better with that in this story! I'm usually pretty good with that, I think, so…Okay! R&R, please~! I wanna know if it was good! I'll make chapter two soon!_

_XOXO, XWithoutXWarningX _


	2. Lunch Time

_**Disclaimer: **__I do not own Total Drama or any of it's characters~ Just myself. Yup, my silly, silly self._

_**Chapter Two-Lunch Time**_

The lunch room is loud, much louder than what Sierra is used to when she eats her lunch. The loudest sound she heard at home during lunch time was the radio, or the TV. It was so different here…She stares absent-mindedly at her tray, unknowingly holding up the line.

"_Hey, Violet, can you get your food and go? __SOME__ of us wanna eat before the bell rings!" _Sierra jumps and quickly steps up to distance herself from the student who just rudely shouted at her, shaking slightly from the surprise. So nervous. She's speechless, unable to fire back an equally-snappy remark that many of these kids would no doubt have had one sitting on the tip of their tongue, just waiting to launch. It seemed that the snap was even louder than the commotion, if that was possible. It made everything about Sierra speed up, just so she could get away from that boy, whoever he may have been. She holds her tray tighter and steps out of the line after hurriedly paying at the counter.

Now comes the issue of where on Earth she's going to sit.

Yeah, public school's _fantastic_.

Cody sits at a table with some friends, although he's not really paying much attention to them. He's looking around, and while he won't admit it, not even to himself, he's looking for Sierra. He's sure that her oddly-colored hair will give her away, but he just can't seem to find her.

Now he sees her. Standing in the middle of the lunchroom, clutching her tray and looking around, nervous once more. He tries to wave over to her without the boys at his table noticing just what he was doing. With him trying to do this discreetly however, it just looks a bit strange.

"_Uh, Cody? What're you doing?"_ One of his friends questions, poking him. Cody scoots an inch or two away, disliking his touch. He doesn't want anyone touching him. Ever. Of course, he seems to forget how he so easily held Sierra's hand for a moment or two in the classroom.

"_Nothing."_ Cody waits until he turns back around before trying again. This time Sierra does see him, to both of their relief. Her slightly glossy lips turn into a smile as she makes her way over, the nervous look slowly evaporating. He can't help but notice that the closer Sierra comes, the stranger he begins to feel-But again, like the spark he felt in class, it isn't worth thinking about.

Sierra sits beside Cody, thankful that she no longer has to stand there and be the center of attention. She could hear the taunts of people in her head, going around and around, her imagination running wild. _'Look at her, she doesn't even have any friends to sit with! What a laugh!' 'Maybe she should go back home-Mommy's always waiting!' 'Not even the geeks will let her sit with them!'_ Although she isn't positive people said such things, she knows they said something.

Someone's always saying something.

"_So, getting school lunch everything ya hoped for?"_ Sierra realizes that Cody's talking to her and, desperate for a conversation to take her mind off of the swirling insults manifested in her head, she quickly replies.

"_Uh, yeah, I guess. Standing in line with pushing, shoving kids while waiting for hours on end to get food you barely have enough time to eat? Yeah, everyone's dream."_ She smiles as Cody laughs a little, smiling as well.

"_I know, huh? This is how I survive every day." _He holds up a lunch box with a yellow, mouse-like character on the front that she knows all too well. _"Bringing a lunch. Gets you first pick of tables, too."_ Sierra nods in approval, letting her eyes scan what she could see of the crowded lunch room-How could all of these kids only be in fourth grade? Every last one? How could one hallway fit so many…?

"_How can there be this many fourth graders in one place?" _she mutters, lost in the wonder.

"_Huh?"_

"_Oh, nothing."_ Sierra mentally slaps herself. Talking to herself was definitely going to get her some points in the 'Weirdo' category, which she really didn't need. Remembering her food, the whole reason she forced herself to stand in that line with that snappish boy, she takes a bite of a French fry.

"_Who's that?"_ Sierra stops, her eyes finding the person who asked the question. Some boy sitting on the other side of Cody, obviously nosy-Did he have to ask so rudely, so bluntly? Did he have to point at her, make it so obvious that she was new, was different, and wasn't one of their little group?

"_That's Sierra," _Cody replies coolly, assuring Sierra of the fact that he wasn't ashamed to be seen with her, putting many of her worries to rest.

"_Oh. She new?"_ The boy fires back with another dim-witted question, which almost causes Sierra to slap her forehead.

"_Of course she's new. You ever see her before?"_ Another boy snaps before Cody can reply back with a possibly softer answer.

"_Uh, yeah, Noah's right, dude." _He says, quietly, his small remark hardly heard.

"_Oh, True. I would've noticed her before, no doubt about it. I know I wouldn't have missed her."_ He turns away from them and back to Sierra, leaving Noah and the "brainiac" to converse over who knows what with two other boys. Sitting with Cody, Sierra almost felt like she's been doing this her whole life-Sitting, talking to someone, eating something a bunch of other kids are eating at the same time in a room full of different-possibly annoying-people.

But the way those two began talking about her made her realize she hasn't all over again.

Seeing the nervous look in Sierra's eyes return, Cody begins to feel a sudden urge to slap the two, or at the very least flick them. They may have been his closest friends, but right now he despised them. She was just so calm, and he honestly forgot that he hadn't known her before. Cody's unsure of just what it's like to be the new kid, especially coming from home schooling to a jungle of kids, but he's pretty sure it isn't exactly the time of Sierra's life. She's quietly eating, her eyes locked on her tray and never straying away. Cody feels an apology is necessary, although he's not exactly sure what's making him feel this way. Like he has to protect her from the harshness of life, even though he knows that's not his place.

"_Hey, Sierra, I gotta apologize for those two. I mean, more one than the other, but…"_

"_Oh, it's okay, Cody. I'm new, that's not gonna change anytime soon. And he's right. He would've noticed me before. Everyone would've. How could they not?" _Her voice starts out cheery, but slowly falls in volume and tone the longer she goes on. Cody turns to his friends for two seconds, hissing,

"_You two are idiots."_ He quickly turns back to Sierra, done with them for now.

"_Hey, blame him."_ Noah realizes he's being ignored and stops trying. Cody is putting all of his attention on Sierra, who's playing with the straw in her milk carton.

"_Bored?" _He asks, which snaps her out of her straw-swirling trance.

"_Hmm? Oh, no. Just thinking about what my mom's doing right now-She probably has a lot of free time now."_ He sees that she's not really bored, just quiet, thinking. Trying to understand the ways of elementary school lunches can be a difficult thing for a new kid when they were homeschooled. Not like he could really relate, but...

"_What did you do at lunch? Y'know, when you were home?"_ Cody asks, disliking how she got quiet-It was fun talking to her, even though she still seemed a bit weird. Too distant and spacey for a normal fourth grader. Why didn't she talk more? Why didn't she really laugh or throw food or take spots? Maybe she just needed to get in the swing of things. Maybe then she wouldn't be so noticable, fitting in, and he wouldn't be so noticable for associating with her.

"_I'd always eat with my mom, and we'd listen to the radio or watch TV or something. It's like a break, before we get back to work. Kind of like our own personal little recess," _Sierra says, now lost in memories. It was fun having lunch with her mom, so different from here. At home, she always had someone who she knew would never talk about her behind her back. At school, well, she has Cody. Right now, she doesn't see a difference. Cody seems nice, and he seems like he'd never betray her like so many kids would. He doesn't seem to mind spending his time with her. He hasn't called her weird once, he hasn't laughed at her or pranked her or put something on the seat beside him so she ouldn't sit there… That's what her older sister said to look for in a boyfriend, was it not? Cody…As her boyfriend? It's only the first day, she can't start putting any thought, any hope into this.

But that isn't going to stop her from dreaming silly little colorful daydreams in her head that just so happened to include the little brunette, gap-toothed boy sitting beside her.

"_C'mon, Cody! You gonna sit there with your little girlfriend or what?"_ Sierra doesn't notice Cody's rapid shift in expressions-Confusion, annoyance, and denial. But when she looks at him, all he's doing is smiling.

"_C'mon, let's get out there, huh?"_ Sierra nods and takes Cody's hand once more. It'd be nice to get out of this school for a minute or two. Still very crowded, in her opinion.

_**A/N:** And that's Chapter 2! Hope you liked it, and Chapter 3 will be here soon. Hmm, better get started on my homework now…Yeah, that'd be a good idea._


End file.
